Richard Marks explains why a group of anaesthetists is calling for a wider debate on increasing the number of anaesthesia associates
In the past I never really gave much thought to anaesthesia associates. I knew that they were science graduates or healthcare practitioners who did a two year course that allowed them to provide anaesthetic care. Theoretically, they always worked under supervision and with a very restricted scope of practice, although I had heard from colleagues that both of these restrictions were being breached. Yet there were only a few hundred associates in the country.
What awoke me from my indifference was the target in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan to expand the number of anaesthesia associates to 2000 by 2036—a 10-fold increase from now.1 At the same time as this proposed expansion, there is a bottleneck of around 700 anaesthetic trainees who are without a higher specialty training post,2 stuck halfway through their careers as a result of poor workforce planning.